


Avonwick Romance

by N_Chu4Ever



Category: Speed Racer (2008)
Genre: F/M, Self-Insert, also its loosely based on Hart of Dixie bc Scott Porter, imma post this so that i have motivation to finish it, oh yeah Scott Porter's Rex is here, somewhere in here are copious amounts of bullcrap, welcome to self-ship hell hope you brought life insurance, yes its one of those and I don't care
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:55:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25071991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N_Chu4Ever/pseuds/N_Chu4Ever
Summary: Someone let me write self-insert fic. Anyway, after the Grand Prix and the homecoming of the thought-dead long-lost Rex Racer, the Racers have decided it's high time they take a break. To be fair, the CIB have also shut down the races, so they really don't have much choice. Upon discovering that Rex is still single, however, everyone wants Rex to find a girlfriend! Avonwick's newest Flying Doctor pilot might just be the one for him...
Relationships: "Fukumen Racer" Mifune Kenichi | Rex "Racer X" Racer/Original Character





	Avonwick Romance

Avonwick, best known as the Town of Country Hicks, and yes that _was_ its actual nickname, at least according to its tourist history. It was also the original settling place of the Mifune family. Hell, Mom’s family still owned the old property out here, and that was where they were all headed now – Speed and Trixie all the way out front in the Mach 5, most of the family in Pops’ old family car, and Rex and Sparky in the newly finished Mach 4R. They were all planning to have a fairly grand time while they were out there – Rex’s return home, combined with the CIB finding a treasure trove of WRL-tampering evidence to investigate during their initial Royalton investigation, had led to a long lull in track races for the time being. With Speed still unsure of taking on more rallies, and Rex in general just wanting to sleep without being on call for his alter ego of Racer X, Mom and Pops had both agreed they all needed a break.

As they approached Avonwick, though, it was clear to Rex that his younger brother had a mission while they were here.  
_“I’m going to find you a partner while we’re here,”_ he declared, as they drove onward.  
“What—Speedy—Why?”  
_“Hey, he’s not the only one,”_ Trixie piped up.  
“I’m in this too,” Sparky grinned. Rex let out a groan in response.  
“Dammit guys, I’m twenty-nine, I can find my own date.”  
_“Rex, we’re going to find you a partner, I swear. I promised Mom,”_ Speed said seriously.  
_“Leave your brother alone – we’re almost at our turn,”_ Pops admonished lightly, but his tone told Rex that he was actually supportive of this.  
“Great… I’m going to have to actually _talk_ to people again…” the eldest Racer brother groaned.  
_“I don’t want to lose my only other ally in the cooties club,”_ Spritle whined.  
“On second thought, _get me outta here~!”_  
“Ayyy, you do remember the Mortified theme song!” Sparky cheered.  
“Only because you wouldn’t stop singing it in fifth grade!” Despite the laughter that rose between the two friends as they turned off the highway onto the main road for Avonwick, Rex _still_ had a feeling he was about to be subjected to attempts at romance.

They had been in the house for _five minutes_ and Speed was already looking through the Avonwick page on Facebook. Due to the town being so small, all of the town’s eligible bachelors and bachelorettes would be on one of the subpages, which Speed thankfully hadn’t found yet.  
“If the eligible bachelorettes and bachelors are still the same as they were ten years ago, I’m finding you a _date_ , Rex,” he declared.  
“I’m disturbed in how determined you, Trixie and Sparky are. Why _are_ you trying to find me a partner?” Rex laughed, even as he helped bring in the last of the bags. His brother was no slouch of course – he’d already brought a good several bags in. “I mean,” Rex continued, passing a bag to Pops as he walked through, “This is easily something I could do on my own. I literally have a wing-woman in my mechanic, Minx.”  
“Yeah, but the people you hang out with are kind of snobbish,” Trixie pointed out.  
“I just don’t want you to die alone,” Speed admitted, adding in his greatest strength – _puppy eyes._ Rex couldn’t stop himself from deflating slightly at that.  
“Okay, fair enough, but this is a country town. I can do a little better than that,” he eventually protested.  
“A _little?_ ” Trixie laughed.  
“Hey, I was a disgrace to racing, I’m not expecting much.” Sparky just wheezed into laughter from where he was entering the room.

As it turned out, there _were_ still eligible bachelors and bachelorettes, many of them the same eligible partners who’d been here ten years ago. Unfortunately, Rex soon realised he _really_ didn’t like any of them. Some of them were too old or too young, but the majority of them were surprisingly stuck up for a goddamn _country town_. He knew the moment he farewelled them that there was no way in _hell_ he’d be able to even remotely date any of them, and so arrived at a weird impasse.  
“Okay, I’ve met everyone, and I despise most of them. Those I don’t entirely despise are too old or young. Should I just seek out someone in Anville?” he put to the rest of the family, a few nights into their stay.  
“I don’t want to discourage you, but I don’t think anyone back home _trusts_ you yet,” Mom sighed. “Trust me, I’ve heard them gossip about you in a terrible light.”  
“You’d be better off shooting for Cosmopolis or one of the richer suburbs,” Spritle added. For not wanting to lose his brother to romance, he was surprisingly receptive to the concept. “They’d probably fall head over heels for you in an instant.”  
“Trust me when I say, as Xavier Chaser, I considered dating some nice rich women. Turns out, none of them were nice,” Rex groaned.  
“Then we pray for a miracle, I guess,” Speed shrugged. “Surely _someone’s_ going to come by for you eventually – you’ve just got to be in the right place at the right time.”

Speed’s words would turn out to be unexpectedly _prophetic._ Bored out of his mind not even _twelve hours later,_ Rex decided to take the Mach 4R for a drive around the outskirts, mostly to see what he could find. While it wasn’t surrounded by trees and mountains like Anville, Avonwick had several interesting landmarks around the outskirts, including the airfield/general airport (good old Air Force) and a couple of farmhouses, though most farms were quite a distance from here. It was about halfway between the airfield and the main town (a small distance, but what would still take forever to walk) that he came across a young, slightly chubby woman with cotton-candy-pink hair and wearing a rather cute jeans and t-shirt combo. He quickly slowed the car down as he approached her, enough to call out,  
“Hey! Ma’am!” The poor woman immediately startled with a jolt, turning to him and yelping,  
“Shit, that engine’s so quiet I didn’t hear it!” Rex didn’t fail to notice the woman was quite pretty.  
“Sorry,” he grimaced in apology, before asking, “Need a lift anywhere? WRL Honour I won’t kill you.” The woman rolled her eyes, but answered,  
“Yeah, I need one to Avonwick Airport – the Flying Doctors’ building, to be exact.”  
“What, are you a medic?”  
“No, I couldn’t handle that pressure. I’m a pilot. I was offered a position here, so I took it.” The woman squinted as she approached the car. “You look oddly familiar.” Now it was Rex’s turn to roll his eyes, though with a smile.  
“Rex Racer.”  
“Oh! Neat. Lily Oxford.”  
“Pleasure to meet you, Miss Oxford. Let’s get you to the airfield.” Though Rex didn’t realise it at first, this encounter with ‘Miss Oxford’ was not to be his last.

“You seem pretty happy today, Rex. Do tell – what’s got you in such a good mood?” Mom asked brightly, as Rex arrived in the kitchen to grab some lunch. Pops had taken the majority of the family out to the local car show, and Rex had come home briefly because he didn’t feel like spending money on the food trucks right now. Mom had been finishing baking some cookies – she’d probably head out to the show with Rex once he finished eating. The reason Rex was in a good mood, though…  
“You know that lady I gave a ride to, a few days ago?” he started, knowing that Mom would know full well which lady he was talking about.  
“Lily, the pilot?”  
“Yeah. I saw her again today and _(whistles)_ she looked _amazing._ ” Mom just gave him a knowing smile.  
“I had a feeling she’d be the one to make you happy. You like her, don’t you?” He’d been _trying_ to take a sip of water, and immediately spat it out at that last sentence.  
“Mom!”  
“Honey, I’ve been through this _twice_ , with Pops _and_ with Speed. Even when Speed barely knew anything about Trixie, he lit up like the Rockefeller tree in New York City whenever he talked about her. Just seeing her put him in a good mood. You’re doing the same with Miss Lily Oxford.”  
“I could be making a mistake,” Rex argued, but he already knew Mom was right. He _did_ like Lily. He just didn’t know that much about her, though he’d already bothered Minx to clear the poor woman through the CIB’s security clearance. She’d _also_ given him a knowing smile, but was smart enough to keep her mouth shut. Even so, Rex was _not_ prepared to try courting, so he had a feeling he’d have to ask Speed about it once the day was over.

Before the day could finish, though, the car show was still going on, and he ran into Lily _again_ while looking at a vintage Écran with Mom (the mayor owned a lot of rare cars). She’d told him in a random fit of excitement (she was autistic, which explained that quite easily) that her hair was originally a dark shade of blonde, so she’d worn a lot of blues, but now wore a matching cotton-candy-pink dress and a darker pink jacket. She knew absolutely nothing about cars, so she called to Rex upon spotting him again.  
“Hey! Rex! I don’t know anything about cars, so can you tell me why this one’s important? Please?” He wasn’t about to turn down such a polite request, and excused himself from his mother’s company.  
“That… is a vintage Vanderbilt Cup Champion, I _think_. 194…9, I think? The best cars from that championship were immortalised in limited-edition streetcars. The Mach 1, for example, had it won the Cup, _probably_ would’ve ended up immortalised,” he mused. “I think this one belonged to Adrian Parmesan, the so-called Pasta Driver.” Lily snorted at that.  
“You’re joking.”  
“Nope. It’s a pity the Grand Prix was rigged up until Speedy won a few months back, because he would’ve made a hilarious entrant into the Hall of Fame.”

He ended up having a titbit of information for each car they looked at, occasionally lighting up as he explained the history behind a certain car he’d admired when he was younger, and occasionally grimacing at some of the ones he’d crashed in his time with Uniron. He spotted one, towards the very end, that he very much did _not_ want to talk about. Lily, for all her lack of knowledge on racing (she just knew that it was fun to watch), recognised it.  
“That was the car you raced for Uniron, right?” she commented, sensitive enough to not ask further.  
“Yep. I… I legally can’t tell you what happened at Casa Cristo. Not out in the open.”  
“I can guess, though – you faked your death.” There was a brief silence. “Okay, I’m sorry for being blunt, but I hate sad atmospheres, so either we go find your Mom or I throw you into the creek.” That made Rex laugh, and they quickly walked away from that depressing piece of history.

Despite the fact (as she told him multiple times) that Lily had a very unstable schedule, the two young adults kept meeting up at the most random of times. Rex almost swore it was as if the universe was telling him to _ask her out_ or something. Sometimes they didn’t have time to chat, but they even had a way around _that_ – they _high-fived_. Rex hadn’t high-fived anyone since _graduation_. When they _did_ have time to chat, it was usually brief (because both usually had eventual destinations), but it did give Rex some valuable information. Lily was over a year younger than him, was single, and had _really pretty blue eyes_. She also came from (and he deduced this by her accent before she even told him) Queensland in Australia (Brisbane to be precise), and had been working as a pilot for the past five years. They surprisingly both shared an interest in Star Trek of all things (she was still an avid fanfiction author as it turned out, though not for Star Trek), and both had at least a vague understanding of German and Japanese. A weird combination, but it made it fairly easy for Rex to mock-insult Lily, up until she got a refresher on French swear words. Slowly, over the course of two weeks (and a lot of encounters), the two got to know each other a bit better… and Rex became keenly aware that he was falling for the young woman. That was the last straw – he _had_ to court Lily out at some point. His family, unsurprisingly, agreed.  
“If you don’t at least take her out to dinner, I’m going to throw you into the goddamn Avonwick Creek,” Sparky threatened, disregarding the fact that Mom was probably about to eat him alive for swearing.  
“Sparky!” Mom immediately admonished. There was a pause, before she added, “It’s barely a creek!” After Rex stopped laughing, he declared,  
“Okay, okay, I’ll ask her out the next time she’s off-shift.”

For all his work as a professional CIB agent and as Racer X, Rex had never been great at _timing_. It was something his brother was excellent at (his dramatic arrival at the Grand Prix came to mind), but Rex either needed constant reminders to get to events, or he arrived too early and had to pretend he was doing something quite important when in fact he was probably doing cartwheels in the garden of whatever party he was attending/observing. This was an instance of the latter, where he arrived far too early before the end of Lily’s shift… and ended up falling asleep in the Wednesday afternoon shade. When Lily came out, tired from a shift, she stopped dead in her tracks.  
“ _Rex?_ ” she asked incredulously. Rex immediately startled.  
“Did I fall asleep?” he laughed, once he’d reassured himself that he wasn’t going to fall off the barrier he’d fallen asleep on.  
“Apparently so,” Lily giggled. “What on earth brings you _here_ of all places?”  
“Uh…” Despite Speed and Trixie hyping him up earlier in the day, Rex still felt a rush of pink on his cheeks, but managed to clear his throat and replied, “I’d like to ask if you’d like to come to dinner with me one night.” Lily _also_ went a nice tidy shade of pink.  
“Oh… Um…” Rex had just started regretting asking when the pink-haired pilot’s face lit up and she laughed, “Sure!”  
“Neat! [ _Why did I say neat?!_ ] Any particular day?”  
“God, that’s a difficult question to answer. I’m on call most of the time, but Friday _should_ work.”  
“It’s a deal, then. Meet me at the Italian restaurant at seven thirty, probably in casual clothes. I don’t really care if you’re late, because if anything, I’ll probably be late as well.” Lily just laughed out loud at that, and Rex couldn’t help but laugh as well.

Friday came very quickly, as it tended to do after Wednesday, and (to their mutual surprise) the two had shown up only a few minutes late. Rex had gone with his normal outfit of a leather jacket (it was autumn, after all) and jeans, while Lily went with jeans and a pink jacket. She looked positively _beautiful_ in it, but Rex was beginning to suspect he thought that about _all_ of Lily’s outfits. She had a reason for being in such a casual outfit, though.  
“I’m still technically on emergency call,” she smiled sheepishly. “Anything could happen at any time, so I have to be prepared to fly at any time.” He couldn’t disagree with that reasoning.  
“Fair enough. I’ll give you a lift – that’s the whole reason I chose the _Italian_ restaurant besides the good food, after all,” he laughed, and was granted with a big smile from his date.  
“Thank you for being considerate.”  
“Ladies first?”

Just two minutes later (thanks to a prior booking), the two were seated in a somewhat private seat, away from prying eyes and from the loud music of the dance floor – yeah, this place had a _dance floor._  
“I will be back shortly for your order,” their waiter smiled, and departed for wherever he was headed.  
“Oh good grief, this menu’s big,” Lily murmured as she read through the menu. She glanced up at Rex, who was also looking through the menu. “Do you have any suggestions?”  
“Mom cooks most evenings, and usually this is slightly out of our price range. Sorry,” he apologised.  
“Fair enough.” Putting the menu down, the young woman leant forward and whispered, “So, Mr Secret Agent, got any crazy stories you can tell little old me?”  
“What makes you think I’m a secret agent?” Rex whispered back, leaning forward almost conspiratorially.  
“Your friend Minx isn’t subtle.” At the groan he let out, while he banged his head on the table, Lily just giggled.  
“Okay, _fine,_ yes I’m a secret agent. The only reason I’m telling you that is because Minx cleared you. I also don’t have many crazy stories that aren’t highly classified… though…” He paused, and then snapped his fingers. “Speed is going to kill me for telling this story, but I can tell you about the Mammoth Car incident that happened a few weeks ago, since that’s under his record and not mine.”

He got halfway through the story, Lily listening both intently and with laughter, before the waiter arrived back for their drinks orders.  
“… And so I hear over the radio that Speed’s crashed into one of those ponds in Canada, and I’m freaking out, because _shit the Mach 5 can’t swim_ , and then Minx just gave me one of those knowing grins and Speed abruptly calls back going ‘SHE PUT AN UNDERWATER MODE ON THIS THING’—.”  
“Sir, madam?” Both glanced at the waiter. “Are you ready to order?” Both realised they hadn’t looked at their menus properly.  
“Um… I’ll have a pink lemonade,” Lily smiled.  
“I’ll have a Diet Coke,” Rex added. The waiter nodded, and departed, and so Rex launched back into the story. He finished explaining how the Mammoth Car had actually been made _entirely out of gold,_ with Lily cackling loudly at the thought of melting gold, when the waiter returned with their drinks and asked,  
“Have you decided what you’d like to order?”  
“I’ll have the puttanesca,” Lily responded brightly. She hadn’t stopped smiling since her arrival, and Rex considered that an _excellent_ thing. Still, he hadn’t heard of the dish, and looked it up in the menu.  
“You know what? I’ll have the puttanesca as well,” he decided. “Try new things, right?”  
“I don’t know anything about your taste, so I can’t exactly say ‘you’ll love it’, but it _is_ tasty.” The waiter, noting down the two orders, nodded and departed, leaving it up to Lily to dive into one of her own stories.

That was how much of the night passed. Rex talked about the few stories he had that weren’t highly classified and/or forbidden to speak about in general, while Lily talked about her stories working as a pilot back home in Brisbane. When they ran out of stories, and their food arrived, they went into a very comfortable silence until they finished and, much to Rex’s slight surprise, he _loved_ the puttanesca.  
“Okay, _that_ is probably _the_ tastiest thing I’ve ever had, besides what my Mom cooks,” he declared, once the plates were taken away and the dessert menus were put in front of them.  
“If you ever come to Brisbane, I promise you, my mum makes a fantastic puttanesca,” Lily laughed. “I mean, she’s not Italian, but she’s a damn fine cook.”  
“Something tells me that if we let your mum and my mom cook together, they’ll feed a nation.”  
“They’d probably also kill us for not introducing them sooner.” There was a brief silence, before they both burst into laughter at the mental image.

They both ended up ordering some simple vanilla ice cream, and Rex paid for the meal before they both settled back to just _talk._  
“I’m going to be completely honest, I don’t think I’ve felt this happy and relaxed in _years,_ ” the Racer admitted. “For the past decade, I’ve been constantly under stress as an agent, and even at the Grand Prix when I was watching my little brother win, it still turned my stomach that he could very well have _died_ in the locker rooms. Tonight, though, and in general ever since I met you halfway between here and nowhere… I’ve been on cloud nine. You’ve actually made me feel really happy for the first time since before I left home, and I hope you know that.” He did _not_ entirely expect the flush of crimson that swept across Lily’s cheeks, and _definitely_ did not expect her to respond,  
“To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever _felt_ like this around someone before. When I first met you, my first thought of course was ‘oh shit handsome stranger’… and then I got to know you. You’re not just a handsome stranger – you’re a very handsome man who actually _cares_ about the people around him. Yeah, I’m well aware there’s probably a whole bunch of trauma under there – I wouldn’t be surprised if half of that is from the mess you went through before you faked your death – but you haven’t let that get to you. You’ve gotten through it, and now you’re here caring about _me_ – an autistic weirdo from Australia – and… I’m out of words. I… I hope it made sense.”  
“It more than made sense.” He was smiling again – in fact, he could feel his cheeks hurting already. “I… I think I can _safely_ assume we’re both thinking the same thing.” He was right, and they began to lean in for what was hopefully the first of many delicious kisses— _**BOOM!**_ They both jerked back as that explosion echoed through the town.  
_“Shit!”_  
“What was that?!” Rex exclaimed, ignoring the pang of missed opportunity. As if in response, Lily’s pager went off. She carried one in case she needed to respond to an emergency. She glanced at it and the message it dispensed.  
“Oh god,” she whispered.  
“Any idea what happened?” He was already standing up, ready to get her to the airfield.  
“Explosion out at the old Kettaprius farm. They’re asking for every available medic. Can you do at least rudimentary first aid?” He nodded, helping Lily to her feet and sending an apologetic look to the waiter who’d come to check on them.  
“They wouldn’t have let me become Racer X, otherwise.” _Oops, I shouldn't have said that._ Lily didn’t even blink.  
“The fact that you’re the Harbinger of Boom is the least surprising thing I’ve ever heard about you. Let’s go.”

It took them ten minutes to speed to the airfield and clamber into the helijet one of the ground crews had already prepped for them, and a further twenty to fly out to the farm, and by that time the whole place was covered in fire.  
“Fuck,” Lily swore.  
“I don’t think I’ve seen something this bad since Diamante Peak,” Rex agreed. At his date’s confused look, he added, “Ten car pileup. I’m not sure how they exploded so much. The drivers, even in the Kwik-Saves, were lucky to escape. Let’s help. Can _you_ do medic work?”  
“No. That’s why I’m trained on that water dumper. Just heed my warning when I say _duck._ ”  
“Let’s get to work, then.” A doctor soon waved Rex over as he sterilised as best as possible and slipped on a breathing mask, and Lily sent the helijet scrambling for the nearest lake, some several miles away.

It took the fire crews and the water droppers _four hours_ to finish containing fire, and an additional half-hour for the ambulances to begin filing in to pick up the injured. By the end of it all, Rex was covered in ash and sweat (how he’d avoided blood was beyond him), and was very thankful that he’d had a mask on so that he didn’t die from smoke inhalation. Lily, who’d been up in the helijet, just looked extremely thankful that it was over. Being extremely exhausted, they both sat on the helijet’s steps as they waited for the last of the ambulances to leave. Unfortunately, as they quickly realised, their night wasn’t over. Lily’s headset went off, and she responded too quietly for Rex to hear, but she soon turned to him and explained,  
“You’re needed – patient collapsed as he tried to get into his car.” Nodding, Rex forced himself to his feet and jogged as quickly as possible over to where the man was lying next to one of the other pilots.  
“I’ve already called another ambulance, but it might take a while. I’ve got to go, so he’s in your hands,” the pilot explained, and ran off before Rex could stop him, leaving a headset for him. Not that he was going to try – he had a patient, after all.

It didn’t take long for him to realise that his patient – one of the workers on the farm – needed transport _now._  
“Lily, you there?” he called over the radio.  
_“Yeah, what’s up?”_ his date thankfully responded.  
“We need a lift. Please?”  
_“What have you got?”_ The man’s injuries were extensive – and this was just from rudimentary examination – and he swore he heard Lily’s grimace on the other side once he finished listing them. _“Yeah, that is an emergency. Okay, load him up. Doctor Cassius, we need you over with Rex!”_

Doctor Cassius, a far older man than any of them at fifty-seven, had been working as a doctor for nearly thirty years, and so he immediately clashed with Rex as they loaded up the patient. Rex, as he was far younger and also not a doctor, was more than prepared to just sit back, but Lily soon piped up over the headset radio.  
_“Cassius, shut the fuck up, okay? Yes, Rex is not a trained doctor, but he’s a damn good listener. Just tell him what to do, and he’ll do it.”_  
_“I can confirm that,”_ their patient abruptly interrupted, much to Rex’s slight amusement, _“Rex Racer can listen real good.”_ There was a brief silence.  
_“Okay, I’m sorry for lashing out at you,”_ Cassius apologised, before beginning his orders and, like Lily had said, Rex listened for what he needed to do.

Miraculously, they’d managed to stabilise the patient by the time they arrived at the airfield just twenty minutes later, and it was deemed unnecessary for Doctor Cassius to remain with his patient, so the three of them were cleared for a flight back to Avonwick Airport. Halfway there, though, Rex noticed that Doctor Cassius had fallen unconscious and was slumped in his seat.  
“Doctor Cassius?” he radioed. He received no response. “Doctor Cassius!” When he again got no response, he climbed over and shook the doctor. Without a third response, he felt for a pulse… and got an abnormal rhythm back. “Shit! Lily! Turn us back to the hospital!”  
_“What? Why?”_ Lily responded. She sounded rather confused, unsurprisingly.  
“Doctor Cassius is unconscious and unresponsive. Put that thing on autopilot, because I need your help back here!”

It was a very tense flight back to the hospital, once Lily had called in the emergency, because Cassius didn’t wake up, and the defibrillator that should’ve been installed on the helijet was missing. The doctor stopped breathing at one point, and both medic and pilot fought valiantly to keep him alive as the autopilot landed the jet back at the hospital helipad. By the time doctors got aboard to transfer the new patient, Rex was performing chest compressions, and Lily was doing her best with the oxygen bag, despite clearly being uncertain of how to use it. Both were extremely exhausted by the time their patient was transferred, and even then they couldn’t rest until Lily had reset the autopilot and gotten the helijet back into the sky, so that more patients could be transferred. With the autopilot set, both of them collapsed in the front seats, panting and well and truly spent.  
“Jesus Christ, what a night,” Rex panted, before he opened and drank a full bottle of water.  
“Hey, we probably saved a lot of lives. If you hadn’t come with me and noticed Doctor Cassius was unconscious, he might have died,” Lily encouraged. “Thank you.” She then proceeded to fully drink a bottle of her own.  
“You’re welcome. And yes, fair enough, we _did_ do a hell of a good job.” He paused for a moment. “Do you reckon that restaurant’s still open? I’ve already burned off all those calories.”  
“Eh, probably not.”  
“In that case…” He pulled the headset on, before pausing again and asking, “What’s our call sign?”  
“Um… Hotel-Alpha-Four.”  
“Hotel-Alpha-Four calling Racer Residence Avonwick, come in Avonwick, over.”  
_“Avonwick here,”_ came Speed’s voice over the radio almost instantly. He sounded worried, unsurprisingly. _“Where the hell have you been, Rex? And also, what’s with the callsign?”_ It didn’t take long for Rex to explain what he’d been doing for the past several hours. _“ **Oh.** That explains a lot. What are you calling for, then?”_  
“Is Mom still awake? Both of us are well out of energy. I think we need some pancakes.” They both heard Speed’s laugh over the radio.  
_“Spritle will probably kill you for that,”_ he chortled.  
_“Hello Rex — yes, I’m still awake even at this ridiculous hour. Are you with that lovely pilot friend of yours?”_ came Mom’s voice.  
“Yep. Lily, care to do the honours? They’ve already grilled me for this, but whatever,” Rex grinned, turning to Lily.  
“Hello! My name is Lily Oxford!” the pilot grinned. “I’m a pilot for the Flying Doctor Service here. I came from Brisbane in Australia, though. This is possibly the weirdest date night I’ve ever had.” Speed immediately burst into laughter again. “Also, your middle son is ripe for murdering.” Mom just chuckled, cutting into Speed’s dwindling laughter.  
_“He has a tendency to do stupid things. Regardless, bring my eldest home safely, and I’ll have pancakes ready by the time you arrive home.”_  
“Thanks Mom,” both chorused, and signed off.

As the helijet came into landing, Rex finally took a look at the time, and laughed,  
“Jeez, it’s nearly two in the morning. What were they even doing up? Speed’s usually asleep by midnight.”  
“Hell if I knew. I had the worst sleep patterns as a teenager. Still do, actually,” Lily shrugged. After they passed the jet over to the ground crews and strolled back towards the Mach 4R, Rex managed to get in front of his date and, rather slyly, declared,  
“I do believe we were about to do something before we were rudely interrupted.”  
“Yes, I do believe we were. Care to remind me?” It was most definitely not how he’d envisioned _any_ first kiss, with them covered in sweat and ash and in the middle of a _parking lot_ , but it was sweet and utterly _perfect_ enough for him. It was a while before they had to break off the kiss, but Lily’s little _giggle_ was enough to tell him that she’d enjoyed it as much as he had. She then straightened and, half-jokingly, threatened, “Tell your family this before we figure out how we want to do this, and you’ll never find peace again.”  
“Bold of you to assume I’ve _had_ peace in the past ten years,” Rex retorted with a grin.  
“Come on, you moron, let’s get those pancakes. I can’t drive, so you’ll have to.” In response, Rex pressed a second kiss – far briefer this time – to Lily’s lips and escorted her to the car.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive back at the Racer house, and both were immediately bombarded by Speed upon just getting inside the kitchen.  
“Rex, you look _terrible,_ ” he grimaced, but his eyes lit up as he looked at Lily from head to toe, stars seemingly in his eyes. He gasped, “You’re even prettier up close. You’ll fit in _perfectly_ here!”  
“Speedy,” Rex admonished, “Did you drink too much hot cocoa _again?_ ”  
“What? That fire was on the news for _hours_ and you wouldn’t answer my calls!”  
“He also forgot there wasn’t a track near Avonwick,” Trixie added with a knowing grin. The grumbling noise Speed made just confirmed it.  
“Trix…” he whined, even as he pressed a kiss to his girlfriend’s hair. Lily just snorted and responded,  
“I’m _definitely_ going to fit in here. I just can’t drive.”  
“Eh, they said I wouldn’t drive either,” Speed shrugged, explaining, “Rex told us you were autistic.”

A few minutes later, smiling and shaking her head as Rex admonished his brother for drinking so much cocoa and Lily and Trixie both laughed at the brothers being ridiculous, Mom served up the pancakes.  
“Usually I’d tell you to go take a shower first, Rex,” she chuckled, “But clearly you need to eat first. Miss Oxford, please feel free to ask for more if you need it.”  
“Thank you, Mrs Racer,” Lily smiled brightly.  
“Please, call me Mom.”  
“Then call me Lily.”  
“Ooh, a forward girl,” Speed whispered to Trixie, who rolled her eyes.  
“Quit gossiping about Rex’s crush,” she hissed back half-jokingly. Lily pretended not to hear that, though she sent Rex a look that said,  
_“They have no idea,”_ and bit into her pancakes. She immediately lit up. “Holy crap— _these are delicious!_ ” she exclaimed.  
“It’s a family recipe I’ve had for years,” Mom smiled proudly. “I’ll pass it down to Rex, Speed and Spritle when I die, and I hope they pass it down to any kids they might have.” Speed and Trixie both choked on their pancakes at that, while Lily burst into laughter and Rex just smiled fondly. He had a feeling that, with the easy acceptance of Lily into the family and the fact that Lily _reciprocated his feelings_ (something he hadn’t thought possible), this was the beginning of a new thing for them both.

**Author's Note:**

> I am a self-shipper, and no I will not be taking criticism. This chapter is being uploaded at half past two in the morning.


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